James V. Franco: A look at the assessments of some officials

Trojans got notice of their property's new assessed value earlier this week and safe to say it's the talk of the town.

And when I say talk I mean people are naturally wondering what their neighbors' new assessments are for two reasons: one because people can use similar homes in their neighborhoods to grieve their new assessments should they think it's too high and the second is just because people like to gossip.

Anyway, from what we are hearing a bunch of people are up in arms about the whole thing but there will be plenty of chances to challenge it and even two seminar type gatherings sponsored by the city and their consultant, GAR. The first is March 11 at 6 p.m. the second is March 16 at 9 a.m. Both are at the Lansingburgh Boys and Girls Club.

So, since it is the talk of the town I am going to list the new assessments for elected and other well known officials in Troy and compare that to their old assessments. It's kind of a tricky since you first have to look up the old assessments on the city's two school district's websites and then compare it to the new assessment roles on the city's website. And the new assessment roles don't have any names attached, just addresses.

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Without further ado:

n Mayor Lou Rosmailia: 61 Ballina St. from $180,786 to $163,000

n Former Mayor Harry Tutunjian: 31 24th St. from $236,286 to $186,000

n Former Mayor Mark Pattison: 3 Sycamore Place from $200,714 to $233,000

n 275-283 River Street (Dauchy Building) from $1.6 million to $1 million

n 264-276 River Street (River Triangle Building) from $712,286 to $1.2 million

The process is far from over and the tax increases or decreases included in your new assessment packages are just estimates provided everything stays the same, which it won't do. For starters you know there are going to be some people disputing the assessments and the bottom line assessed value of the city will change and the tax rate is based on that number.

Plus, nothing goes into affect until next year and there are all sorts of other variables to get factored into the budget every year such as sales tax revenue and pension costs, that also impact the tax rate.

As I've said before, it's been 40 years since the city last did a reassessment and that's way too long. It will be painful this year and next but it's beyond overdue and in the end everyone will be paying closer to their fair share of taxes.